John Cusack joins Elijah Wood in Grand Piano

May 17, 2012 - By Ben Pearson

A couple weeks ago, word came out that Elijah Wood is starring in an independent thriller called Grand Piano, which has been described as “Speed at a piano.” It’s such a ridiculous idea, and I was baffled that someone like Wood would sign on in the first place. But now Variety reports that John Cusack is also joining the cast, and though we’re not sure what character he’s playing, Cusack might have just the right amount of crazy in him to pull off the villain role here. More below.

Here’s the premise:

The story concerns a once-great concert pianist who suffers from stage fright and comes back to perform after a five-year hiatus. Just when he’s about to play the first bar, he notices somebody has written a threatening note on his music sheet. He’s now forced to play his best concert ever to save his life as well as his wife’s.

I wrote earlier that I couldn’t wait to see what sort of insane villain would put together such an elaborate set-up, and I’ll be really pleased if Cusack turns out to be that guy. Rodrigo Cortes (Buried) is producing, and Eugenio Mira is directing from Damien Chazelle’s script. Filming starts this summer, so we’ll keep you posted on the progress if anything interesting develops.